Typhoon damaged 40,000 hectares of Vietnam rice

Typhoon Ketsana damaged 70,000 hectares of land planted to food crops in
central Vietnam, including rice, hurting production in the world's
second-largest exporter of the grain, a government official said Friday.

Initial estimates showed at least 100,000 metric tons of rice was lost
from 40,000 hectares of crops hit by the typhoon, Pham Van Du,
deputy-director general of Vietnam's Department of Crop Production, said
in an interview in Bali.

Still, the losses are unlikely to lower significantly the nation's rice
output this year, he said.

Rice production in Vietnam, the world's second-largest exporter, may
climb to a record 37 million tons this year, on improved yields and
expanded acreage, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report this
week.

The typhoon also damaged 20,000 hectares of land planted to corn and
sugarcane, Pham said, without providing estimates of the impact on
production.